Eyes are among the most valued human organs that play indispensable roles in life. Likewise, eye diseases and vision loss in general are serious problems. Moreover, eye diseases and vision problems among children, especially new-born babies, can have severe and far-reaching implications. For infants and small children, the visual centers in the brain are not fully mature. For the visual centers in the brain to develop properly, proper input from both eyes is desirable. Therefore good vision can be an important factor in the proper physical development and educational progress. Undetected eye problems in infants and others may result in irreversible loss of vision. Early detection and diagnosis provide the best opportunity for treatment and prevention of vision loss.
In eye examinations, eye imaging apparatus has become increasingly important. Since retinal and optic nerve problems are among the leading causes in vision loss, eye imaging apparatus capable of imaging a posterior segment of the eye can be particularly useful. Moreover, an eye imaging apparatus with a wide field of view can offer the benefit of enabling evaluation of pathologies located on the periphery of the retina. However, because of the complicated structure of the eye, the reflection and scattering from the eye can cause glare and haze, which obscures the images acquired by an eye imaging apparatus. Thus the images from the posterior segment of the eye with a wide field of view often exhibit a layer of strong haze or glare. This problem is especially acute for the patients with dark pigmentation in the eyes. There is a need for an eye imaging system that is capable to obtain high quality images of the eye and a novel image processing method to achieve the high quality images.